


I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair

by Pluppelina



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Cuddles, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-23
Updated: 2012-03-23
Packaged: 2017-11-02 10:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/367870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pluppelina/pseuds/Pluppelina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim is depressed and Sebastian knows his boss well. Songfic for Always by Erasure, only not quite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair

_Open your eyes, I see  
Your eyes are open  
Wear no disguise for me  
Come into the open_

Jim is lying on his bed, in the dark, listening to Always by Erasure.  
“They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” he murmurs softly, the Irish in his voice made more apparent by the drunkenness the room reeks of.  
“What are you talking about?” Sebastian says back, putting his rifle down just inside the doorframe. Another kill, another job well done. It hardly matters now, anyway.  
“Mitzi Gaynor,” Jim replies, as if it’s ridiculously obvious. “Mitzi Gaynor would never have sung it like this.”

_When it's cold (When it's cold) outside (outside)  
Am I here in vain?  
Hold on to the night  
There will be no shame_

No, she probably wouldn’t. Jim likes Mitzi, but he doesn’t like love songs like these; Sebastian knows that Jim doesn’t believe a word of them. He also knows that Jim is listening to this song because it makes others happy but it makes Jim sad and he’s still got enough sense about him for that to be fascinating. Jim, who believes himself to be too clever to be mentally ill. Jim, who is starting to realize that his biggest enemy lives inside of his own head. Jim, who needs distraction from this immediately.

_Always, I wanna be with you  
And make believe with you  
And live in harmony, harmony_

So Sebastian, who sometimes suspects that he was hired to protect Jim Moriarty from Jim Moriarty, moves over the floor to the bed and sits down on the edge of it. There is no reaction.  
“Sir,” he says, as he does whenever he wants to know if he’s about to cross some line that ought not be crossed due to the professional nature of their relationship, or when he needs to remind Jim that he is indeed the one in charge even if it might not seem so at the moment. Right now, Sebastian needs to do both those things. Jim doesn’t say a word. “Permission to make you feel better.”

_Melting the ice for me  
Jump into the ocean  
Hold back the tide, I see  
Your love in motion_

“How do you propose to do that?” Jim asks as if he’s genuinely curious. Sebastian supposes that Jim thinks it undoable, that, if the great Moriarty can’t figure it out, it’s impossible. Sebastian doesn’t think so, because there are certain things no one can do to themselves no matter how hard they try.  
“Blow job, sir?” Sebastian proposes carefully. Jim snorts.  
“Sex we can’t do, sniper man,” he says. “There’s not enough tenderness left in my body.”

_When it's cold (When it's cold) outside (outside)  
Am I here in vain?  
Hold on to the night  
There will be no shame_

“Then allow me to put some back into it,” Sebastian says, and, when there are no further protests, he slides slowly down under the covers next to his boss. When that doesn’t result in something sharp connecting with his body he moves to settle in against Jim’s side properly. Before he gets further than up onto his side he can feel Jim moving beside him and stops dead immediately, because with Jim it’s always hard to tell, but Jim only curls himself up tighter against Seb. Sebastian moves his body as close as it will go and puts an arm protectively around the chest of his boss. He can slowly feel him relax.

_Always, I wanna be with you  
And make believe with you (Always)  
And live in harmony, harmony oh love  
(Always) I wanna be with you (Always)  
And make believe with you (Always)  
And live in harmony, harmony oh love  
(Always)_

This looks like love but it isn’t. Jim doesn’t believe in it, Sebastian doesn’t believe in it; that isn’t what this is. This is something good in spite of never ever being that, and Sebastian doesn’t care, because he knows that Jim prefers it this way.


End file.
